Chlorine or ion generation for a swimming pool has long been known as being useful for healthful and safe swimming. For example, chlorine mixed water is required of most municipal and public swimming pools in the United States and Canada. The chlorine level must be carefully regulated and adjusted if necessary in such public swimming pools to provide swimmers, including small children with a safe and healthful place to bath and swim.
Manual methods of adding chlorine to the swimming water are well known. The pool attendant take precautions to not get the chlorine directly on him/herself and then adds the proper amounts to the pool water. Various tests are done to the pool water to see ensure the proper concentration levels of chlorine are present. It is also well known that other ion elements are used to treat pool water. For example, bromine, is also used in a similar to chlorine for safely cleaning pool water.
For many years, automated chlorinators have been known. The known automated chlorinators include means for testing the pool water to determine whether or not the appropriate level of chlorine or other ion mixed in the water is present. For example, generally speaking, the testers look for levels of 2700 ppm. When the level drops below that level the automated chlorinator is activated and adds chlorine or other ion to the water, increasing the level until the 2700 ppm is reached.
These chlorinators can be very expensive. For example, a common automated chlorinator can cost the consumer upwards of several thousands of dollars. Additionally, these expensive chlorinators are somewhat fragile and often need expensive repairs or even replacement.
In fact, the general thinking has been to make the coated anode smaller. The coating is an expensive process and consequently the conventional thinking has been to make the coated anode as small as possible. As will be described herein, Applicant's theory of the invention is not only a departure from structure, but also from conventional thinking.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,014,753 entitled Salt Chlorine Generator is specifically incorporated herein for all purposes, including, but not limited to it use as Background, antecedent basis and as a reference and an example of previously known devices. One of the inventors therein, then known as Joseph Hui, is the inventor herein.
At the heart of the modern automated chlorinator is an electrolytic cell. A typical such cell includes two electrodes, an anode and a cathode in a salt solution as described above with respect to the '753 patent. Once electrical power is applied to the electrodes, a chemical reaction begins. In a salt (NaCl) solution, the CI is stripped out and floats freely in the water, safely cleaning the pool water.
Point/Edge Effect:
It is well known that there is a higher electrical potential at the edges of an electrodes than anywhere else. These edges or points as they are sometimes known tend to deteriorate faster than any where else on the electrode. The result is, of course, premature wear of the electrode. It is well known that first failure of the electrode occurs at the edge, in fact, at the point edge. Eventually, the electrode or perhaps the entire chlorinator needs to be replaced earlier than it should.
The point/edge effect leads to spotting or patches being created in the coating of the electrodes. The greater the current that is generated by the cell, the faster such spotting will spread and the quicker the coating will be lost and the more rapid the destruction of the electrode.
Clearly, by preventing the starting of the degradation at the point edge of the electrode, the longevity will dramatically be increased. If the pressure of the electrical activity on the point edge is decreased, the pressure on the electrode will be decrease, again extending the longevity of the electrode.
What is needed is an inexpensive automated chlorinator, which does not require expensive repair and which is reliable and can fit existing pool configurations.